


The Seventh Regime

by Tarlan



Category: The Chronicles of Riddick Series
Genre: M/M, Post-Movie(s), Rough Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-16
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-07-15 02:31:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7202705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tarlan/pseuds/Tarlan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vaako has convinced the fleet to head to the threshold, expecting to find Riddick waiting there following his death in due time. Only minutes away from transcendence a familiar and loved voice calls him back from the brink of Underverse.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Seventh Regime

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SilverDolphin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDolphin/gifts).



> Written for [Night On Fic Mountain 2016](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/NightOnFicMountain2016) challenge
> 
> [SilverDolphin](http://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverDolphin/pseuds/SilverDolphin) said: _I love the setting. I *adore* both Riddick and Vaako, the first an anti-hero, a man of his word who tries and (often) fails to keep everyone at arm's length, both to keep them safe and to keep himself from being hurt as he got burned too many times. And the latter, a villain with heroic qualities, idealistic to the extreme and loyal (unless he gets manipulated by his smart wife). I'm fond of everyone showed so far, still Vaako's probably my very favorite character in the whole movie universe. I'd love an happy ending for my requested ship. What if when he gets back, Riddick somehow takes the precedence on his faith and wanting of transcending? Also likes men putting complete trust in each other/trusting with their lives, and hearts, slow burn, passionate and/or rough sex, showing feelings with sex or touch instead of words, sex and/or cuddle for warmth._
> 
> I really hope you enjoy this story.

Ahead of him the threshold beckoned, more beautiful than he could have ever imagined. He was one of the last few born into Necroism, not long after Oltovm The Builder decreed procreation as the antithesis of their belief that all life was a mistake, that all life should be cleansed from this universe. All he had ever known was Necroism.

As a true believer his mother had committed ritual suicide once he was no longer dependent upon her, resetting the balance for the life she had brought into this 'verse with her own. His life. Over the years that followed his father taught him how to control pain and he entered the purification chambers before his ninth birthday. Just a week later he followed his father onto the battlefield on Furya as one of the youngest Necromonger warriors - if not _the_ youngest ever to grace the battlefield in the name of Necroism. He saw his father cut down on that final day of the campaign against Furya, remembering the way the warrior's eyes shone, silvered like Riddick's. That day he rejoiced in his father's honorable death, met in due time, knowing his soul would enter Underverse to join his mother; transcendent.

Every true believer sought transcendence, though not just for themselves but for all who crossed their path, though none were more zealous than those who had converted to Necroism, none more bloodthirsty. Each death by his hand was done with honor, with a single blow, for pain was not something the ones he honored needed to know or understand, only death in due time. Yet he had seen Zhylaw on Furya, a young lieutenant recently converted who had risen fast in the ranks, watching as Zhylaw cut the unborn from their mother's bellies, as he slaughtered children with such savagery, as though they were a challenge to his very existence. It took Vaako thirty years to discover the truth, that Zhylaw was influenced more by Elemental prophecy than by Necroism.

Convert or die, but Zhylaw had not so much converted to the Faith but seen it as a means to escape his imminent death, to delay the inevitable. Vaako was no fool. He knew most of those who converted did so in the hope of living just a little longer, but the purification ritual tended to numb most of them to their impending death on the next battlefield. Far fewer of them embraced Necroism wholeheartedly, zealously, rising through the ranks like Irgun, Scalptaker, Zhylaw... and Krone.

Perhaps it was his memory of that magnificent, silver-eyed warrior coloring his judgment but he had been enthralled with Riddick from the moment they met on Helion Prime. In Riddick he saw a natural-born Necromonger, strong and agile, who understood pain, embracing it without becoming numb to it. He saw no lingering deaths at the Furyan's hands, and no pleasure in extending pain senselessly, at least not for those who deserved to meet death in due time. Unfortunately, this mercy was tempered with compassion for those weaker and more vulnerable. Riddick did not have the same appetite for death especially where children were concerned, seeing no honor in their deaths for himself or for them despite the many times Vaako tried to make him understand he was showing compassion by offering them a clean and fast death in due time.

"They will be reborn in Underverse, transcendent," he had said, but Riddick had given him an enigmatic smile.

"If you say so, Vaako," he had responded with a half-pitying look of someone trying not to antagonize a crazy person.

Infuriating. Obstinate, and yet despite everything Vaako still considered him a better Lord Marshal than the previous two - Baylock and Zhylaw. He knew Riddick had the potential to be greater than all of those who had come before, to become the last of the Lord Marshals, the one who would lead the Necromongers across the threshold. All Riddick had to do was believe. Instead Riddick prowled and paced the Basilica like a caged animal, rarely sleeping for fear of assassination, and Vaako had often seen him in the control room in the deep hours of the night flicking through all the worlds already freed of human existence - looking for Furya.

After the last assassination attempt, Vaako made the decision to give him what he wanted. He reasoned once Riddick had seen the desolation of the world that was once Furya he would channel his pent-up fury into the next campaign, becoming the leader the Necromongers needed to bring an end of all human life in this 'verse. Although only a child at the time Vaako recalled everything about his first campaign, including knowledge of the planet's location - the only map in known existence for Zhylaw had expunged all references of Furya from the database.

Vaako remembered the blade at his throat, perhaps one of only a few who might have noticed Riddick's diminished strength from blood loss and sleep deprivation, and the only one who would not take advantage of that weakness. He ordered a ship to take Riddick to Furya, entrusting his Lord Marshal to Krone, who had taken Irgun's place at his side as his second in command after Riddick took his piece of Irgun. When Krone returned without Riddick, Vaako felt a sharp stab in his chest that had little to do with any blade.

Loss. Grief.

He had seen its like many times before. He had even seen it in Riddick's silvered eyes as he stared down at the female acolyte who had given her life to save his during that fight with Zhylaw, but he had never understood the emotion as it was not the Necromonger way to grieve when a life ended in due time. Or perhaps he had never felt such a deep attachment to another before Riddick, not even to his former wife. She had annulled their marriage when he accepted Riddick as Lord Marshal, but Riddick had spurned her advances in favor of a succession of concubines. She took Commander Dyram as her consort, aware he was someone she could manipulate more easily, and Vaako did not grieve for her when she met her death in due time during a landing accident on one of the outer planets in the Helion system. He would see her again in due time.

He grieved for Riddick and the end of The Seventh Regime, finding himself without an appetite for pain or death for the first time since childhood. At first he had not even cared who would step into the void created by Riddick's loss, to begin a new regime and continue with the Campaign.

Riddick had not named a successor, or conveniently left a pyro-doc behind for one of his trustworthy commanders to find, as Zhylaw had done when he claimed the throne following the unexpected death of Lord Marshal Kyrll. Krone had not claimed the death of Riddick by his own hand, giving him no right to 'keep what you kill', possibly because he knew Vaako would not have let him keep his life if he had claimed that as a right of succession. Krone had his eyes on a different prize position - The Purifier. After weeks of murderous debate that would only escalate and perhaps even surpass the vicious in-fighting following the death of Lord Marshal Baylock, Vaako bought himself time to control his grief and save the Campaign by announcing that only Riddick could name his successor, and Riddick was now in Underverse.

He turned the fleet around and ordered it to the threshold, aware it could take over a year to retrace their steps using the navigation markers known only to the Necromonger elite. By the end of that year most of those eager to be the next Lord Marshal had met a timely end for Vaako was determined to be the one who would travel into Underverse.

Vaako's personal ship was halfway across the void to the threshold when the communication panel lit up and a familiar, deep voice filled the cockpit with a single word, "Vaako."

He brought the ship to a complete stop, hanging in space with the beauty of the threshold completely filling the front view screen, momentarily too shocked to key the communicator and respond. He had prayed to Underverse that he would be reunited with the owner of that sultry voice once he crossed the threshold, just as Covu had been reunited with his murdered wife and children, and for a moment he wasn't certain if the voice came through the rip in the universe ahead of him or from the Necromonger fleet behind him. He keyed the communicator.

"Riddick," he finally replied, keeping his voice low and flat so he did not broadcast his true feelings across the whole fleet.

"Miss me, Vaako?"

The voice was velvet soft like a lover's caress, almost too intimate in the cockpit of the small ship, and the dark, teasing undercurrent proved to Vaako this was no subterfuge, no pretender trying to fool him into turning back from the threshold before he had tasted its power. Yet if this was truly Riddick, alive in this 'verse, then Krone had lied to him when he said he saw Riddick fall, saw his dead body lying broken at the bottom the cliff after the edge gave way on Furya. Krone had fought by his side on several campaigns so Vaako knew of Krone's dislike for the nonbeliever sitting on the Necromonger throne. He had warned Krone not to speak against their Lord Marshal and Krone had remained silent in his presence ever since, showing proper deference. Could he have been mistaken about Krone?

"Krone," he stated softly.

"Talked too much."

Vaako nodded, even though there was no video feed, recognizing the past tense. Krone was dead at Riddick's hand, which meant Vaako could not interrogate him to discover the true extent of his crimes against the Necromongers, or if he had been working with yet another of the commanders behind Vaako's back. It made a mockery of their tenets - obedience without question; loyalty until Underverse come.

Riddick had been certain someone in the higher ranks had paid the female concubine to kill him, and perhaps it had been bitterness rather than disappointment that had Riddick questioning him over his own loyalty to his Lord Marshal. Admittedly he had attacked the former Lord Marshal with the intention of claiming the Necromonger throne for himself, but Zhylaw had been a weak fool, believing in Elemental prophecies so implicitly that he willingly betrayed his own people and their beliefs in order to stay alive. True believers coveted death, but they also knew there was a right and proper moment, and only those who died in due time would see Underverse. Vaako did not expect to see Zhylaw on the other side of the threshold, but he had prayed he would find Riddick there, seeing his death as described by Krone as one that had come in due time. He had killed those other contenders for the Necromonger throne just so he could be the one to make this journey across the threshold, so he could look into those silvered eyes and hear that sultry voice once more. Despite his words in the Basilica, he had no intention of returning to this 'verse afterwards, intending to remain by Riddick's side in Underverse.

He stared into the swirling turbulence ahead of him, and for a moment he was caught between the promise of transcendence that had governed his life's actions since birth, and his desire to be with Riddick. He could still go on and choose either to return as a Holy Half-dead, or to wait beyond the threshold for Riddick to join him in due time. His mind was now in conflict as both of those actions went against the Necromonger beliefs that had held sway of him his entire life. With no successor in place, Riddick was still the Lord Marshal, and Vaako was his First Among Commanders.

He turned the ship around.

When he reached the Basilica ship he found the atmosphere tense and silent, with no words passing between any he met within the corridors as he made his way back to the Necropolis. Eyes slid away from his as he walked through the ranks of those filling the great hall, his heart thumping heavily in his chest when he caught sight of the familiar figure lounging on the throne. He could feel Riddick's eyes on him as Vaako approached, uncertain of his reception for he had no means of knowing what Krone had said before meeting his death at Riddick's hand. He had no way to prove he had not been complicit in Krone's assassination attempt on Riddick but he refused to run and hide like a coward. If he was to die now by Riddick's hand then it would be in due time for he had done all that was required of a Necromonger commander.

Vaako stopped several paces away and dropped to one knee, head bowed. "My Lord Marshal."

The silence was disturbing, without even the rustle of cloth or clink of armor, as if all were frozen in time as they awaited the outcome of this meeting.

"Vaako."

Looking up, he saw Riddick had an intrigued expression rather than hard and unwelcoming. Riddick stood and indicated with his head for Vaako to follow, causing a ripple of murmurs flowing back among those present. He followed with his head held high, watching others drop their eyes from his in deference or fear. He did not care which. Riddick led him to the Lord Marshal's quarters, untouched since Riddick's departure over a year earlier. Even the blood stain on the ornate chair was still visible from that last attack.

"Shut the doors behind you."

Vaako did as ordered, and waited outwardly patient but inwardly nervous for all the wrong - or possibly the right reasons.

"Krone had a lot to say," Riddick stated in a matter-of-fact voice while inspecting the chamber he had not seen in over a year. He stopped by the chair, staring at the dried blood stain. "Spent a whole year on Not-Furya thinking you'd betrayed me, Vaako. Wondering how I let you get so close; how I lost my edge."

Vaako remained silent because he refused to beg for his life or raise a weapon against him if it was Riddick's intention to kill him. He tensed as Riddick circled him like a predator toying with its prey, barely controlling the shiver as Riddick brushed against him but something in his stance must have betrayed him as Riddick laughed. By now Riddick was right in front of him and though he was shorter than Vaako, he was not intimidated in the slightest.

"Took all those willing females to my bed but even four wasn't enough." He was standing so close now, and he leaned up, sniffing at Vaako's throat. "Smelled beautiful... but wasn't what I wanted." He let the words hang as he pulled away, taking several steps back and tilting his head like a curious predator. "Spent time on Furya figuring out why I was so pissed at you." This time he reached out and trailed a single finger down Vaako's cheek. "Obedience without question," Riddick stated.

"Loyalty until Underverse come," Vaako finished softly.

"Wasn't wrong about you, Vaako. You are dangerous. Got under my skin like an itch I couldn't scratch." He smiled wryly. "Knocked me off my game." he prowled forward a step. "Made me... weak." He stepped in fast, both hands grasping the back of Vaako's head. "Not anymore," he growled and kissed Vaako hard, and the sensation was electrifying.

Vaako could feel all the power in the body pressed hard against him, could sense the primal urges driving Riddick, the predator that made him the perfect Necromonger finally unleashed. He ignored the sharp pain as Riddick sliced through his clothing using a razor sharp knife which he must have hidden on his person. Their mouths slid apart only for Riddick to latch onto his throat, sucking with bruising strength against the purification scars. Perfection. They fell onto the bed, and any advantage Vaako might have had from height alone was lost. Riddick growled as Vaako gripped him tight in return, fingers pressing into hard muscle, leaving behind red marks that would turn into beautiful mottled bruising even on Riddick's slightly darker skin. The rush of pleasure came too soon, intensive, sharp and bright like a knife slicing skin, and for one piercing moment Vaako found transcendence as his senses heightened, colors and scents intensified, and all he could see was the reflection of his ecstasy in Riddick's silvered eyes.

They spent the next few hours examining every scar, every bruise, both new and old, seeking and finding transcendence in every slide of tongue or brush of skin. Yet the greatest pleasure was waking hours later to find Riddick still pressed up against his side, head pillowed on his chest... and soundly asleep. Trusting in him to keep him safe as he slept.

**Epilogue:**

Many years later, Consort Vaako took his customary place beside the great throne as Lord Marshal Riddick ordered the fleet to turn back to the threshold for the final journey. As for the Elementals, all their calculations failed to see their end, and they were the last to fall as all human life was cleansed from this 'verse. Vaako took great pleasure in being the one to give death in due time to the Elemental whose prophecy had led Zhylaw astray, with Riddick watching as the life faded from Aereon's eyes.

A year later they reached the threshold. Ahead of them it swirled in brilliant colors, and through the tear in time and space Vaako could see Underverse beckoning, offering a different but no less powerful call for transcendence. Riddick lifted his hand as the Basilica ship battled through the turbulence and Vaako gripped it tight as the ship crossed the threshold into Underverse. Together forever.

END  
 


End file.
